American Literature

Daniel Keyes was born on the 9th day of August year 1927 at Brooklyn, New York. In his book, Algernon, Charlie and I A Writers Journey, he narrates some story of his childhood. According to him, his parents, William and Betty Keyes, have little formal education but this did not stop them to strive for living. His father is a persevering person in such a way that he would walk everyday ten miles to save two nickels (13).

Poverty challenged them more to have their children educated. Daniel is the eldest child of the Keyes. They dreamt of Daniel becoming a doctor because according to his father, Because a doctor is like God. He cures people and saves lives. (15). Just like when he was saved by a doctor when he was born with an infected mastoid and double pneumonia.

At the age of seventeen after graduating from a public high school, the official website of Daniel Keyes states that he joined U.S. Maritime Service as a ships purser. When he came back, he studied at Brooklyn College and graduated in 1950 with a degree in Psychology, thinking that it would be his pre-med major in obedience to his parents dream for him (15). However, in a very young age, Daniel has been dreaming of becoming a writer already. He was thinking of becoming a doctor and a writer at the same time to give way to his parents dream and his personal ambition. He thought of Maugham, Chekov and Doyle, three writers who have started as physicians (15).

Right after graduation, Daniel was employed as an associate fiction editor for the magazine Marvel Science Fiction and subsequently entered fashion photography business. When he earned a teaching license at New York, he taught high school students English at morning and studied for his masteral degree in English and American Literature at Brooklyn College as well (Daniel Keyes Biography). In the book, Contemporary Science Fiction Authors by Robert Reginald, Daniel married in October 14, 1952 with Aurea Vazquez and they had three children, two are named, Hillary Ann and Leslie Joan (148). Finishing his masteral degree enabled him to teach at university level. He then taught creative writing at Wayne State University and sometime in 1966, he also joined Ohio University where he taught the same subject and was honored eventually as Professor Emeritus Status in 2000 (Daniel Keyes Biography).

Another webpage talks about his biography and expounds on his literary career started which started when he was teaching for high school students. Flowers for Algernon is a short story when it was very first published in 1959 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story was inspired when he was teaching for slow learners and an unforgettable moment in the classroom sparked the idea (Audio Interview of Daniel Keyes). The story won Best Short Fiction in Hugo Award in 1960 inspiring Daniel Keyes to expand the story into a novel published in 1966 and won once again an award for best novel in Nebula Award (Reginald, 148).

Daniel wrote ten other more books and some information can be found in The Books section of his website. In 1968, he wrote The Touch, a story of a married couple who has been long waiting to become pregnant and then a radiation accident worsens their dream. Aside from writing science fiction, his creations can be observed to be with regard to personalities. This can be a result of him being a psychology major, he writes mostly about multiple personality disorders. The Fifth Sally was written in 1980 and is about multiple personalities of a waitress named Sally Porter. Another book he has written in 1982 is a non-fiction work called The Minds of Billy Milligan. It is about a man suffering multiple personality disorder who was acquitted for a crime committed during insanity. Five years after, Unveiling Claudia was born. It is also a story of a criminal, now a woman, with multiple personalities. In 1994, The Milligan Wars, a sequel to The Minds of Billy Milligan was published. Daniel Keyes Collected Stories and The Daniel Keyes Reader were published in Japan in 1994. Daniel Keyes describes his fame in Japan during a book signing as The line was wrapped around the block three times They brought me gifts, flowers, candy, letters, and I sat there thinking, I feel like a rock star.... (Daniel Keyes 40 Years of Algernon). Until Death do us Part The Sleeping Princess, a story of mental competency, was published in 1998. In 2000, Algernon, Charlie and I A Writers Journey, was created by Daniel to discuss his methods of creating fiction. His newest book called The Asylum Prophecies was just published in 2009.

According to Maurice Rapf of Life Magazine, Daniel Keyes science fiction is different from other science fictions. Daniel does not talk about planet hopping but with urgent, contemporary problem of mental retardation. It also raises the possibility of instant brain sharpening. Daniel has combined his experience in Marvel Science Fiction and as a psychology major in most of his works. According to the book Impossibility Fiction, the creations of Daniel Keyes pretends that work of fiction is a factual report. (Littlewood and Stockwell, 179).

The most prominent novel of Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, has been already published in thirty countries worldwide and is being studied in high school across America (Daniel Keyes 40 Years of Algernon). It is a story about a thirty two year old mentally retarded man named Charlie Gordon and the experimental study on his mental capacity. The whole book was written in a journal type which Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur, directors of the experiment, asked him to write. Before the experiment, the co-workers of Charlie often make him the subject of ridicule. Charlie cannot comprehend this idea because of his low IQ level and simply believes that they are all his friends. The experiment Charlie was subjected was tested with a mouse named Algernon. The mouse proved development in mental capacity after the operation. Charlie agreed to be subjected to the experiment because according to him I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends who like me. (Keyes, 13) Charlies development took a while. He became more skilled as he was helped by Alice Kinnian, his teacher. He progressed after sometime. He learned to spell, read, write and became knowledgeable. In fact, he became productive by inventing processes to improve the work at the Bakery. As his IQ level increase, he became to realize morality issues with work such as when a co-worker steals from the bakery. He starts confronting each employee with their issues. This led his co-workers to be troubled of his new personality. What Charlie wanted before the experiment to be smart to have more friends, did not come true. Instead, he lost more of his co-workers because some got intimidated of his intelligence. In fact, he was out of the bakery because the owner thought that Charlie does not need any help anymore. In addition to that, others saw his confronting attitude not helpful but more of intruding. Charlie knew about this when he said, Intelligence and knowledge had changed me (173). He realized that being smart does not mean that a person will have many friends. In some cases, having higher intellect can lead to losing friends.

Daniel Keyes at present time with age 82 is currently staying at Southern Florida with his family. His works, especially, Flowers for Algernon, is still available worldwide. It has been part of American Literature since it was born.